PHILADELPHIA—What we learned Friday afternoon from Duke’s gradual domination of Albany, 73-61, in a Midwest Regional Round of 64 game at Wells Fargo Center—advancing the Blue Devils one round further than last year:

Where was C.J. McCollum?

As every college basketball fan knows by heart now, McCollum was the best player on the floor a year ago as 15th-seeded Lehigh upset second-seeded Duke. Albany, the America East automatic qualifier, needed an NBA-level talent like McCollum to keep up with this year’s Blue Devils. The Great Danes do not have one. They were fairly quick and defended tenaciously but were smaller at every position.

The player who talked the feistiest, guard Jacob Iati—the day before, he’d said, “We’re not just going to roll over for them”—was the most capable of going on the kind of hot streak Albany needed to pull the upset. He scored 15 points, including a big 3-pointer late in the first half while the Danes were closing the gap to 31-26. But at 5-10 (and with a backcourt mate of 6-foot Mike Black), he had no chance against Duke’s wave of bigger, stronger, even better-shooting guards.

Meanwhile, Duke’s 6-11 Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly were just unfair matchups, inside and outside. Neither was at his sharpest, but they were good enough against an undersized frontline that, more often than not, had no one taller than 6-8 on the floor.

"Doesn't really matter to us what people are talking about," Plumlee said. "We're very confident. I thought it was a good win today, and we're just focused on us."

Curry can carry the Devils

When Duke guard Seth Curry is on a roll, he can carry this team. He didn’t have to carry them against Albany, but his stroke was on early. He drained a three the first time he touched the ball, and when he wasn’t continuing that hot streak from outside, he was driving past defenders trying to close him out. He hit his first five shots, led all scorers with 14 points at halftime, then banked in a three early in the second half. Whenever Albany made a brief run, it was generally Curry who calmed the waters.

Maybe the biggest examples? When Albany closed to within 64-56 with 4:40 left, Quinn Cook forced up a jumper late in the shot clock ... and while the rebound bounced around in the lane, Curry slashed in, picked it up and laid it in. On the next Duke possession after a timeout, he took a late jumper himself from the right wing that bounced around and in, giving the Blue Devils a 12-point lead. He finished with 26 points.

Plumlee quiet but effective

Plumlee doesn’t always look good, but he looks good enough. Is it possible to score a quiet 23 points in a game in which your team scored in the 70s? Plumlee did. He also turned it over four times and had to exit briefly in the second half with foul trouble.

"He was really good. Passing the ball, that's as well as he's played in a while," Plumlee said. "That gets guys going, and it's really hard to guard a passer. I thought he played great and just made life easier for everybody else offensively."

He’ll be the dominant big man against whomever Duke plays next, either Creighton of Cincinnati, and he likely can pull off the same thing, solid numbers while still being inconsistent and even invisible at times. Duke will need more from him after this weekend, though, if it gets that far.

Duke needs more from Kelly

On Thursday, Mike Krzyzewski said Kelly was looking and feeling better in practice by the day, but that he was still closer to preseason form than midseason, because of his long rehab from a broken foot.

It showed against Albany: he scored eight points, was 0-for-3 on 3s and 3-for-8 shooting overall, and was a spotty presence at best despite arguably having the biggest advantage on the floor. Ranking Duke as a real title contender always has depended on how healthy he was. This game gave no reason to alter that theory.

"When you get into the tournament, you play with a certain level of desperation," Kelly said. "They fought and fought for 40 minutes. We never expect any team to go away. They had guys that could shoot the ball."